I saw this question come through on my Facebook feed. The context is large, public technology companies.

Why, so often, are customers seen as the enemy?

Because they’re the thing in between the company and the revenue. Because the real customer is shareholders and the buying-customer is part of the supply chain. Because product managers think customers exist to buy their products. Because better competition is seen as a decision failure on the customer’s part instead of a portfolio/marketing/competitive failure on the company’s part. Because large entrenched public companies are often myopically, maladaptively egocentric.